Doctor Who: Video Highlights from the Series 8 Q&A

To help mark the release of Doctor Who series 8 on DVD and BluRay, which will be released in the US on Tuesday, December 9, the BBC held a question-and-answer session with Steven Moffat and the stars of the show. Hosted by comedian and series 8 guest star Frank Skinner (Perkins) at the Ham Yard Hotel in London on Monday, November 17th, this video contains 14 minutes of highlights from the very enjoyable panel.

One of the first things that made me smile was how Peter Capaldi phrased the reaction he gets from fans worldwide. In making one of the greatest understatements of all time, he says, “And it’s delightful, because they’re sort of pleased to see me.” Funny guy, that Capaldi.

Jenna Coleman explained the differences between this year’s Clara and last year’s Clara pretty succinctly. In series 7, she was The Impossible Girl, which made her more of a mystery, whereas this series we got to see a lot of her life without the Doctor. Her presence in series 8 wasn’t necessarily greater, but simply more accessible. She did have an ever larger independent streak in this series, but I found that very entertaining.

Skinner asked Michelle Gomez if she went back and watched performances by past Masters in the series. She said that she decided to simply “do nothing” and just see what happened as she worked off the others on the show. She admitted this played really well into her propensity for being lazy. Lady, if that’s what you can do being lazy, you’ve got us all beat.

Capaldi had some very kind things to say about Jenna Coleman. She was the first person to show him around the TARDIS set, something I bet he’d been dying to do. He said that from the very first day she has been his friend, and that friends are really what you need coming in as the new lead in a show with an established cast and crew.

Skinner mentioned that Capaldi’s Doctor is more “alien” than recent ones which gives the relationship a different dynamic. He had everyone laughing when he said it was a “slight Mork and Mindy dynamic.” Once the laughter died down, Skinner made the point that this Doctor was really kind of discovering the world while Clara was his guide and sometimes his caregiver. It’s a funny, but very keen and apt observation.

Capaldi complimented Samuel Anderson on the “leading man quality” he brought to the role of Danny Pink. He also said Anderson’s Pink was the show’s moral center for series 8. I really hope they somehow manage to bring his character back. He does have descendents, after all.

Michelle Gomez has some funny things to say about when she and Peter Capaldi first met years ago. She said they felt instantly familiar to each other when they first met and, apparently, they shared a banana and “everything was fine.” I’m not sure if she was being literal or euphemistic, you decide for yourself. I’ve already made up my mind.

Capaldi quite literally shocks Moffat at one point, and you don’t see the Moff shocked very often. Moffat was joking about how a young Capaldi used to write the BBC all the time, then Capaldi revealed that he actually turned down an audition for the 1996 FOX Doctor Who movie, a role that went to Paul McGann. He felt there was no way he’d be cast in the lead role on an American television show so he didn’t want to go through the bother of auditions. Considering how that project went, he made the right choice.

Frank Skinner (Perkins) hosts this very special series 8 panel with guests Peter Capaldi (the Doctor), Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald), Samuel Anderson (Danny Pink), Michelle Gomez (Missy) and Steven Moffat (lead writer and showrunner), to mark the DVD and Blu-ray release of Doctor Who Series 8.

Filmed at the Ham Yard Hotel in London on Monday 17th November 2014.

To pre-order, or just plain order after December 9, click here: Doctor Who: The Complete Eighth Series on DVD & BluRay. It’ll make a great Christmas gift for your favorite Whovian. Get one for yourself while you’re at it. And I wouldn’t say no to a copy myself in case you’re looking to get me a little something.

Senior Editor for Three If By Space. Tom first became interested in science fiction & science as a very young child thanks to his parents. His earliest memories of enjoying scifi were sitting with his dad watching first-run episodes of the original Star Trek. Although a fan of nearly all forms of scripted television, Tom’s preferences skew heavily toward hard science fiction.